The sarcastic wit of Bomb the Music Industry! meets the catchiness of Green Day in the newest tune by the Boston folk-punk outfit Drunken Logic.

When you hear a poppy punk tune that’s laced with mandolin, you’d be right in guessing that song was probably written in or near Boston. While there’s no scientific way to test that rule, that guess is correct in the case of the Boston folk-punk outfit Drunken Logic. In another tip of the hat to Boston tropes, they’ve titled their new album Long Day’s Journey to the Middle, which has the benefit of referencing both a fine play by Eugene O’Neill and evoking the worn out barroom aesthetic that is so common in the band’s native city.

To get a sense of what’s coming on the album, below you can stream lead single “(The Good News Is) No One Gives a Damn”, an energetic number that should prove perfect in helping shake off the winter doldrums currently plaguing New England.

Los Angeles producer GDNA teams up with beatmaker Jo Def for the airy and synth-led "Reasons".

The Los Angeles-based musician and producer GDNA describes himself as “the melodic apothecary peddling medicine for the melancholic.” You can confirm his alliterate appellation by downloading the track “Reasons”, his collaboration with beatmaker and lyricist Jo Def, which you can do exclusively here at PopMatters. Citing influences such as Flying Lotus and Dwele, The LA Timessays of the tune, “‘Reasons’ is nothing if not of the moment.”

Part four of PopMatters' six week series on the new album by the up-and-coming UK sibling trio the Rua focuses on the track "Follow".

The all-sibling trio called the Rua, comprised of 22-year old Roseanna Brown (voice and guitar), 24-year old Alanna Brown (piano and backing vocals) and 19-year old Jonathan Brown (violin, guitar, vocals and backing vocals), has already caused a splash in its native United Kingdom with its debut album, Essence. With that LP about to see its United States release, the Rua are offering listeners a chance to go behind the scenes of the making of the music on a track-by-track basis. The Rua’s knack for gripping melodies, in addition to their background in classical training, make them a rising talent to keep an eye out for.

This week marks the fourth issue of PopMatters’ six-week series on Essence. This time the band breaks down the track “Follow”, which the trio describes as one of the “rock-ier” moments on the record.

Vocoder-esque effects meets a spaghetti western aura in the newest single by Jacco Gardner, "Find Yourself", off of his just-announced LP Hypnophobia.

Dutch producer, multi-instrumentalist, and “baroque pop prince” Jacco Gardner has just announced the forthcoming release of his sophomore studio LP, Hypnophobia. This follows the 2013 release Cabinet of Curiosities. In tandem with announcing the album, Gardner dropped the spaghetti western-inflected track “Find Yourself” to give a tease of what’s to come on the full-length.

In PopMatters’ “Best Hopes to Break Out in 2014” piece, Alan Ranta wrote of Gardner, “It is exhilarating just to think about what’s going to happen with this kid when it all comes together, and his drive points to that inevitability happening soon.” With Hypnophobia, we’ll soon find out.

Ryan Culwell strolls and sings through a Nashville construction site in his latest music video, "I Think I'll Be Their God".

The West Texas-raised, Nashville-based singer/songwriter Ryan Culwell ain’t your ordinary troubadour. After dropping out of his successful time at Texas A&M as an economics student to become a musician, he eventually set down the guitar. He then took up a gaggle of jobs, including cow bile cooker, FedEx worker, server, roof salesman, furniture mover, sports radio editor, telemarketer, mail sorter, and fence builder. Now, eight years after stepping aside from his musical career, he’s writing music once again, and he’s taking all he’s learned from his hodgepodge of jobs during his absence from the music scene. In explaining his return, he points out, “When my daughters are grown they deserve a story that doesn’t include the woes of West Texas bars or a recounting of daddy’s touring history to explain why he left their mom. I left the scene so those stories wouldn’t write themselves over the top of me, and it was worth it.” With strong tunes like “I Think I’ll Be Their God”, the video of which you can watch exclusively below, it’s easy to see that the wait was worth it all along.